By Rex Mphisa
OF course, our Wednesday April 1 Fools’ Day article titled “Chinese Gold Explorers Arrive At Mangavha Disused Mine” caught many pants down!
Many got fooled and others even drove to the site to witness the event.
It was subject of many discussions on different platforms with residents Whatsapp Group B/B Progessive Forum rolling close to 200 comments on the topic lasting almost a day!
Oh, yes, it was just good old journalism at play and we got you!
Here is what you missed.
First the headline spoke about “Gold Explorers” and yet in the story there were purported visiting a copper mine.
Ziyah News Network does not have a reporter Rey Mbisa most took for Rex Mphisa.
The explorers were from “Haiwavo”, a Shona dismissive word and in the same line the explorers came from “South Northern China”, and there is no location like that geographically those being different poles.
Further, the delegation was accompanied by officials from “the School Of Mines”, highly unlikely in the presence of the Ministry Of Mines and Mineral Development.
There is no Kingdom Light Ministries Church in the Mbedzi Area and the time does not say 10:30 am or pm, unlike in news reporting.
Further it locates the disused mine under urban Beitbridge as under the Beitbridge Rural District Council whose executive is Loud Ramakgokoma, a non existent person many read as Municipality of Beitbridge (MoB)’s Loud Ramakgapola!
And the compensation arrived at by counting bedrooms is a nothing but classy fool’s day humour!
The name Mangavha Copper Mine is hoax, Mangavha is a name of one of the pioneer shops in the area well after the mine was closed.
Further there is no company called Xintal as in the last paragraph and the closest is Xintai, a Chinese concern at Palm River Resources with no connection to River Ranch Diamond Mine at all.
The last paragraph sums it up with the Venda word “Mazwipha” to refer to lies as the name of the translater for “Chinese delegation head Hugai Chiu”
The parting shot was the development of the aerodrome for “direct flights to China,” which when done, becomes upgrading to an airport!
But the feedback and response was interesting with many taking it to be true.
“I actually saw myself collecting compensation for my butchery which is in that area and investing in cattle and leaving town,” said businessman Beji Muleya.
Political activists like Bhekimpilo Mbedzi took the opportunity to attack what he said was undue facilitation of the Chinese investors.
Former Ward 5 Councillor Granger Nyoni was vocal and said the Chinese were after diamonds and the tunnel stretched 15 kilometres underground which can easily cross the Limpopo River if southward bound.
A senior government official was on rheir way ro Mangavha to attend the meeting when the called Ziyah News Network only to hear they had been fooled.
Although April Fools’ Day has been observed for centuries, its true origins are unknown and effectively untraceable.
Some have proposed that the modern custom originated in France, officially with the Edict of Roussillon (promulgated in August 1564), in which Charles IX decreed that the new year would no longer begin on Easter, as had been common throughout Christendom, but rather on January 1.
Because Easter was a lunar and therefore movable date, those who clung to the old ways were the “April Fools.”